Eleanor Scerri
@elliescerri.bsky.social
Archaeologist, head of the Human Palaeosystems Group at the MPI-GEA, Reader at the University of Cologne, A/Prof at the University of Malta & NatGeo Explorer. Human evolution, niche expansion & the transition to human dominated landscapes.
Pinned
In @nature.com we report the presence of the Mesolithic on Malta - upending everything we knew about the seafaring capabilities of late European hunter-gatherers and pushing back Maltese prehistory by 1000 years. Watch the clip, link to open access paper is below. 1/5
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Our new paper is out! Here's a thread from @huwgroucutt.bsky.social
(1/18) New paper alert, a thread! Just published in PLoS ONE, our study: “Novel archaeological and palaeontological findings in cave and palaeoriver landscapes of inland northeast Arabia”. Link: journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...
Novel archaeological and palaeontological findings in cave and palaeoriver landscapes of inland northeast Arabia
Knowledge about environmental change and the evolutionary history of hominins in Arabia has been rapidly developing over the last two decades. Interdisciplinary research on humans and environments acr...
journals.plos.org
November 20, 2025 at 7:27 PM
Our new paper is out! Here's a thread from @huwgroucutt.bsky.social
Happening now!
www.gea.mpg.de/177655/the-e...
www.gea.mpg.de/177655/the-e...
The evolution of human niche size in East Asia across the Pleistocene
Humans can thrive in nearly all terrestrial environments, exhibiting exceptional ecological flexibility among primates. However, it remains unclear how and when this flexibility first emerged in the h...
www.gea.mpg.de
October 15, 2025 at 12:01 PM
Happening now!
www.gea.mpg.de/177655/the-e...
www.gea.mpg.de/177655/the-e...
Reposted by Eleanor Scerri
You've heard of the human "cognitive revolution" around 40 kya—a moment when our species suddenly became "behaviorally modern." Have you also heard that this story is wrong?
From the archive, our episode w/ @elliescerri.bsky.social & @manuelwill.bsky.social!
Listen: disi.org/revisiting-t...
From the archive, our episode w/ @elliescerri.bsky.social & @manuelwill.bsky.social!
Listen: disi.org/revisiting-t...
September 9, 2025 at 4:48 PM
You've heard of the human "cognitive revolution" around 40 kya—a moment when our species suddenly became "behaviorally modern." Have you also heard that this story is wrong?
From the archive, our episode w/ @elliescerri.bsky.social & @manuelwill.bsky.social!
Listen: disi.org/revisiting-t...
From the archive, our episode w/ @elliescerri.bsky.social & @manuelwill.bsky.social!
Listen: disi.org/revisiting-t...
Reposted by Eleanor Scerri
Independence day in #Malta!
Hunter-gatherers were crossing at least 100K of open water to reach the Mediterranean island 8,500 years ago, 1K years before the arrival of the first farmers.
From consortium led by @elliescerri.bsky.social @maxplanckpress , inc. @UMmalta .
🖼️ © Daniel Clarke/MPI_GEA
Hunter-gatherers were crossing at least 100K of open water to reach the Mediterranean island 8,500 years ago, 1K years before the arrival of the first farmers.
From consortium led by @elliescerri.bsky.social @maxplanckpress , inc. @UMmalta .
🖼️ © Daniel Clarke/MPI_GEA
September 21, 2025 at 11:23 AM
Independence day in #Malta!
Hunter-gatherers were crossing at least 100K of open water to reach the Mediterranean island 8,500 years ago, 1K years before the arrival of the first farmers.
From consortium led by @elliescerri.bsky.social @maxplanckpress , inc. @UMmalta .
🖼️ © Daniel Clarke/MPI_GEA
Hunter-gatherers were crossing at least 100K of open water to reach the Mediterranean island 8,500 years ago, 1K years before the arrival of the first farmers.
From consortium led by @elliescerri.bsky.social @maxplanckpress , inc. @UMmalta .
🖼️ © Daniel Clarke/MPI_GEA
Reposted by Eleanor Scerri
Thank you @prelights.bsky.social & Alejandra Leffer's group for choosing our preprint on @biorxiv-evobio.bsky.social and for this chance to talk about human- #malaria coevolution!🦟
@eegcam.bsky.social @elliescerri.bsky.social @MPI_GEA
@eegcam.bsky.social @elliescerri.bsky.social @MPI_GEA
The distribution of early human settlements in Sub-Saharan Africa might have been influenced by avoidance of mosquitoes that spread malaria
A new #prelight of Alejandra Leffer's group talks about the preprint by @margheritac17.bsky.social , and the team.
A new #prelight of Alejandra Leffer's group talks about the preprint by @margheritac17.bsky.social , and the team.
Malaria shaped human spatial organisation for the last 74 thousand years - preLights
The distribution of early human settlements in Sub-Saharan Africa might have been influenced by avoidance of mosquitoes that spread malaria
prelights.biologists.com
August 22, 2025 at 12:47 PM
Thank you @prelights.bsky.social & Alejandra Leffer's group for choosing our preprint on @biorxiv-evobio.bsky.social and for this chance to talk about human- #malaria coevolution!🦟
@eegcam.bsky.social @elliescerri.bsky.social @MPI_GEA
@eegcam.bsky.social @elliescerri.bsky.social @MPI_GEA
New paper from all of us led by the amazing @lucytimbrell96.bsky.social!
Very pleased to see our paper published online at Climate of the Past: cp.copernicus.org/articles/21/...
We present model-data comparisons of Late Quaternary climate across the Northern Hemisphere, showing that increasing model resolution has little net effect on coherence with pollen proxies 😊
We present model-data comparisons of Late Quaternary climate across the Northern Hemisphere, showing that increasing model resolution has little net effect on coherence with pollen proxies 😊
More is not always better: delta-downscaling climate model outputs from 30 to 5 min resolution has minimal impact on coherence with Late Quaternary proxies
Abstract. Both proxies and models provide key resources to explore how palaeoenvironmental changes may have impacted diverse biotic communities and cultural processes. While proxies are thought to pro...
cp.copernicus.org
July 10, 2025 at 1:18 PM
New paper from all of us led by the amazing @lucytimbrell96.bsky.social!
New paper alert! Led by @jblinkhorn.bsky.social, we look at refugia for baboons in the Pleistocene and Holocene, offering a potential analogue for early hominins where climatic tolerances are shared.
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
Identifying late Pleistocene and Holocene refugia for baboons - Communications Biology
Hindcasted species distribution modelling of baboons illuminates potential refugia across Africa and Arabia, with predicted maxima and minima of habitable ranges pulsed by orbital precession and obliq...
www.nature.com
July 5, 2025 at 7:53 AM
New paper alert! Led by @jblinkhorn.bsky.social, we look at refugia for baboons in the Pleistocene and Holocene, offering a potential analogue for early hominins where climatic tolerances are shared.
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
Reposted by Eleanor Scerri
"Do Recent DNA Studies Refute a 65 kya Arrival of Humans in Sahul?" See comment by @elliescerri.bsky.social and myself here: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Do Recent DNA Studies Refute a 65 kya Arrival of Humans in Sahul?
Click on the article title to read more.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
June 30, 2025 at 4:36 AM
"Do Recent DNA Studies Refute a 65 kya Arrival of Humans in Sahul?" See comment by @elliescerri.bsky.social and myself here: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Reposted by Eleanor Scerri
🌲Great to see our @cp-oneearth.bsky.social study on #rewilding-inspired #forestry featured 2x in @mongabay.com . It’s a land-sharing approach—restoring #biodiversity & resilience in used #forests, not replacing protected areas.
🔗 news.mongabay.com/2025/04/dive... (further links below)🌳🌴🦬🍒🪵♨️
🔗 news.mongabay.com/2025/04/dive... (further links below)🌳🌴🦬🍒🪵♨️
Diverse forests and forest rewilding offer resilience against climate change
When it comes to reforestation, planting a diversity of tree species could have a plethora of positive effects on forest health and resilience, climate mitigation and biodiversity. That’s based on res...
news.mongabay.com
June 25, 2025 at 7:41 AM
🌲Great to see our @cp-oneearth.bsky.social study on #rewilding-inspired #forestry featured 2x in @mongabay.com . It’s a land-sharing approach—restoring #biodiversity & resilience in used #forests, not replacing protected areas.
🔗 news.mongabay.com/2025/04/dive... (further links below)🌳🌴🦬🍒🪵♨️
🔗 news.mongabay.com/2025/04/dive... (further links below)🌳🌴🦬🍒🪵♨️
Gift article about our work that also mentions our recently published paper in @nature.com on rainforests as well! Thank you @carlzimmer.com!
About 70,000 years ago, a new study suggests, our species learned to live just about anywhere. Later, that ability helped our ancestors expand from Africa across the world. Here’s my story on the human niche [Gift link] nyti.ms/3ZBc7ID
When Humans Learned to Live Everywhere
About 70,000 years ago in Africa, humans expanded into more extreme environments, a new study finds, setting the stage for our global migration.
nyti.ms
June 18, 2025 at 3:24 PM
Gift article about our work that also mentions our recently published paper in @nature.com on rainforests as well! Thank you @carlzimmer.com!
1/5 Why do all non-Africans descended from a group that left Africa 50k ago? In @nature.com we model 120k years of human niche dynamics. From 70ka, a big expansion of the human niche in Africa likely equipped later OOA dispersals with a unique ecological flexibilty.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Major expansion in the human niche preceded out of Africa dispersal - Nature
Analysis of species distribution models in a pan-African database comprising chronometrically dated archaeological sites over the past 120,000 years shows major expansion in the human niche from 70 ka...
www.nature.com
June 18, 2025 at 3:10 PM
1/5 Why do all non-Africans descended from a group that left Africa 50k ago? In @nature.com we model 120k years of human niche dynamics. From 70ka, a big expansion of the human niche in Africa likely equipped later OOA dispersals with a unique ecological flexibilty.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Major paper drop coming at 5pm CEST today. Excited!
June 18, 2025 at 5:00 AM
Major paper drop coming at 5pm CEST today. Excited!
Final day of the #IslandLegacies conference today! So grateful for the convergence of such a fantastic group of scholars and thinkers. It has been truly inspirational!
June 5, 2025 at 7:58 AM
Final day of the #IslandLegacies conference today! So grateful for the convergence of such a fantastic group of scholars and thinkers. It has been truly inspirational!
Reposted by Eleanor Scerri
Livestream tomorrow at 5pm UK/noon EDT with Drs Eleanor Scerri (@elliescerri.bsky.social) and Huw Groucutt (@huwgroucutt.bsky.social) to chat about their recent paper that's been all over the news about Hunter gatherer occupation on Malta
www.youtube.com/live/ZGRjN20...
www.youtube.com/live/ZGRjN20...
New Discovery: Stone Age Seafaring to Malta with Dr Eleanor Scerri and Huw Groucutt
YouTube video by Archaeology with Flint Dibble
www.youtube.com
April 24, 2025 at 3:32 PM
Livestream tomorrow at 5pm UK/noon EDT with Drs Eleanor Scerri (@elliescerri.bsky.social) and Huw Groucutt (@huwgroucutt.bsky.social) to chat about their recent paper that's been all over the news about Hunter gatherer occupation on Malta
www.youtube.com/live/ZGRjN20...
www.youtube.com/live/ZGRjN20...
Reposted by Eleanor Scerri
Recurrent humid phases in Arabia over the past 8 million years
Monika Markowska @huwgroucutt.bsky.social, @nicoleboivin.bsky.social, @elliescerri.bsky.social et al
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Wetter conditions likely facilitated dispersals between Africa and Eurasia. Arabia acting as crossroads.
Monika Markowska @huwgroucutt.bsky.social, @nicoleboivin.bsky.social, @elliescerri.bsky.social et al
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Wetter conditions likely facilitated dispersals between Africa and Eurasia. Arabia acting as crossroads.
April 11, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Recurrent humid phases in Arabia over the past 8 million years
Monika Markowska @huwgroucutt.bsky.social, @nicoleboivin.bsky.social, @elliescerri.bsky.social et al
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Wetter conditions likely facilitated dispersals between Africa and Eurasia. Arabia acting as crossroads.
Monika Markowska @huwgroucutt.bsky.social, @nicoleboivin.bsky.social, @elliescerri.bsky.social et al
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Wetter conditions likely facilitated dispersals between Africa and Eurasia. Arabia acting as crossroads.
Reposted by Eleanor Scerri
Here is the latest news from @eegcam.bsky.social...
Among other VIPs (=very important publications), it includes our recent paper on Luca Cavalli-Sforza's legacy on #humanevolution 💀🧬
With @margheritac17.bsky.social Jason Hogdson, @chrisbstringer.bsky.social and @elliescerri.bsky.social
Among other VIPs (=very important publications), it includes our recent paper on Luca Cavalli-Sforza's legacy on #humanevolution 💀🧬
With @margheritac17.bsky.social Jason Hogdson, @chrisbstringer.bsky.social and @elliescerri.bsky.social
April 11, 2025 at 2:54 PM
Here is the latest news from @eegcam.bsky.social...
Among other VIPs (=very important publications), it includes our recent paper on Luca Cavalli-Sforza's legacy on #humanevolution 💀🧬
With @margheritac17.bsky.social Jason Hogdson, @chrisbstringer.bsky.social and @elliescerri.bsky.social
Among other VIPs (=very important publications), it includes our recent paper on Luca Cavalli-Sforza's legacy on #humanevolution 💀🧬
With @margheritac17.bsky.social Jason Hogdson, @chrisbstringer.bsky.social and @elliescerri.bsky.social
A nice video on our work in @nature.com from the Times of Malta with English subtitles for the Maltese parts!
www.facebook.com/share/v/185P...
www.facebook.com/share/v/185P...
April 10, 2025 at 10:23 AM
A nice video on our work in @nature.com from the Times of Malta with English subtitles for the Maltese parts!
www.facebook.com/share/v/185P...
www.facebook.com/share/v/185P...
Reposted by Eleanor Scerri
My summary of the exciting new excavations by @elliescerri.bsky.social and her colleagues, showing Mesolithic hunter gatherers arrived to Malta by sea
Hunter-gatherers journeyed by sea to Malta
Evidence reveals that people reached Malta 8,500 years ago. Hunter-gatherers made the long trip there 1,000 years before agricultural societies arrived.
www.nature.com
April 10, 2025 at 6:40 AM
My summary of the exciting new excavations by @elliescerri.bsky.social and her colleagues, showing Mesolithic hunter gatherers arrived to Malta by sea
And today I have the rare pleasure of also double dipping in @nature.com with this fantastic article showing recurrent humid phases in Arabia over the past 8 million years! This was such a pleasure to do, with incredible fieldwork in beautiful Saudi caves!
(1/13) A thread on our new paper just published in Nature, ‘Recurrent humid phases in Arabia over the past 8 million years’. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Recurrent humid phases in Arabia over the past 8 million years - Nature
A climatic record from desert speleothems shows that the central Arabian interior experienced recurrent humid intervals over the past 8 million years, which likely facilitated mammalian dispersals bet...
www.nature.com
April 9, 2025 at 3:42 PM
And today I have the rare pleasure of also double dipping in @nature.com with this fantastic article showing recurrent humid phases in Arabia over the past 8 million years! This was such a pleasure to do, with incredible fieldwork in beautiful Saudi caves!
A blog post from me about our discovery pushing back Maltese prehistory to the Mesolithic, and discovering that hunter-gatherers were making epic 100 km sea journeys!
communities.springernature.com/posts/discov...
communities.springernature.com/posts/discov...
Discovering Europe's Last Hunter-Gatherers
A chance discovery led to evidence of a vanished people - and the epic sea voyages they were never supposed to have undertaken.
communities.springernature.com
April 9, 2025 at 3:31 PM
A blog post from me about our discovery pushing back Maltese prehistory to the Mesolithic, and discovering that hunter-gatherers were making epic 100 km sea journeys!
communities.springernature.com/posts/discov...
communities.springernature.com/posts/discov...
Watch the full video clip about our discoveries and their significance - from Charlie Cauchi at Sajjetta!
player.vimeo.com/video/105936...
player.vimeo.com/video/105936...
Hunter-gatherer sea voyages extended to remotest Mediterranean islands- subtitles on Vimeo
player.vimeo.com
April 9, 2025 at 3:17 PM
Watch the full video clip about our discoveries and their significance - from Charlie Cauchi at Sajjetta!
player.vimeo.com/video/105936...
player.vimeo.com/video/105936...
In @nature.com we report the presence of the Mesolithic on Malta - upending everything we knew about the seafaring capabilities of late European hunter-gatherers and pushing back Maltese prehistory by 1000 years. Watch the clip, link to open access paper is below. 1/5
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
April 9, 2025 at 3:08 PM
In @nature.com we report the presence of the Mesolithic on Malta - upending everything we knew about the seafaring capabilities of late European hunter-gatherers and pushing back Maltese prehistory by 1000 years. Watch the clip, link to open access paper is below. 1/5
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
My amazing zooarch postdoc Mario Mata-González has published a new paper based on his PhD work - check it otu!
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Prey choice and changes in site occupation intensity during the Middle and Upper Paleolithic at Ghar-e Boof (southern Zagros Mountains, Iran) - Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences
Ghar-e Boof represents an exceptional Paleolithic site in the southern Zagros Mountains. Due to its long Late Pleistocene sequence that spans from ca. 81 ka until the Epipaleolithic, the site offers a...
link.springer.com
April 5, 2025 at 1:39 PM
My amazing zooarch postdoc Mario Mata-González has published a new paper based on his PhD work - check it otu!
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Coming on the 9th of April at 2pm CEST - Will Gosling's lecture in our "Human Palaeosystems in Focus" series - don't miss it!
www.gea.mpg.de/129765/drive...
www.gea.mpg.de/129765/drive...
Drivers of vegetation change in tropical Africa
www.gea.mpg.de
April 5, 2025 at 1:32 PM
Coming on the 9th of April at 2pm CEST - Will Gosling's lecture in our "Human Palaeosystems in Focus" series - don't miss it!
www.gea.mpg.de/129765/drive...
www.gea.mpg.de/129765/drive...
Our new paper is out in Scientific Reports, led by our own @lucytimbrell96.bsky.social exploring factors behind early technological diversification! Congratulations Lucy!
Our paper “Climate seasonality and predictability during the middle stone age and implications for technological diversification in early Homo sapiens” has been published in Scientific Reports 🥳
rdcu.be/egqwZ
rdcu.be/egqwZ
Climate seasonality and predictability during the middle stone age and implications for technological diversification in early Homo sapiens
Scientific Reports - Climate seasonality and predictability during the middle stone age and implications for technological diversification in early Homo sapiens
rdcu.be
April 4, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Our new paper is out in Scientific Reports, led by our own @lucytimbrell96.bsky.social exploring factors behind early technological diversification! Congratulations Lucy!